A question that is often asked and to be honest, selling a house can seem like it is taking forever.
Bu there is some good news as there has been a fall in the average number of days it takes to sell a property here in the UK.
According to new research released by the conveyancing firm LMS, the number of days it takes to sell a property has now fallen to 49 days.
The previous average at the start of this year was 55 and while still far from ideal the situation is improving greatly, according to LMS.
The longer the time period between a property being put on the market and the exchange of contracts, the much higher the chances of sales falling through, or of gazumping, which sadly still affects
During the first half of 2007 the average number of days taken to sell a property stood at 55 days which was 17% higher than during 2005/06.
However, despite what some experts and buyers think, the change cannot be put down to Home Information Packs (HIPs) according to LMS.
"Any improvement in efficiency over the last three months is unlikely to be solely thanks to Hips, rather due to a decrease in the number of properties on the market," said Dominic Toller, director of marketing at LMS.
"With volumes down, the market tends to be more efficient” he added.
The controversial HIPs were introduced earlier this year for four and three-bedroom homes with the aim of making buying a property altogether faster and more secure.
"Over the next few months, the market should start to feel the real benefit of HIPs with efficiency improving and cancellations going down," continued Mr Toller.
"With a bit of luck we’re only months away from all properties requiring a HIP before marketing and this can only mean a more informed decision-making process which will reduce the likelihood of cancellations and contribute greatly to improving market inefficiency."
However, some 16% of all property sales still fell through over the last 3 months, a level not seen since 2005.
This seems to imply that buying a property can continue to be problematic and the potential for it to fall through is still relatively high.
In essence, the mechanism of buying a property may have sped up, but with the high rates of sales being aborted, how many times does a buyer have to go through the same process before they finally get a home?